MOTHER AND SON!

A MOTHER AND SON 1982-1985

I am positive his name was "Langford", a regular I met while working at a variety store during my sophomore year in college. Langford was a big, quiet,Native man with a dog. I was surprised to learn that he was 65, I thought he was much older. I was just 22. Langford lived in a little house with his Mother who was 96. I am not sure if I ever knew her name , but know she came to Canada from the United States on horse back as a small child. Over the next year and a half, I photographed mother and son at least three times.

It is very difficult to articulate what compelled me to photograph Langford and his Mother. Looking back I felt like a month drawn to a flame. I now have the unsettling feeling that I did not make the decision to photograph them... no...on the contrary, I feel they chose me. The Mother was as quiet as the son,but I want to say she was powerful. In my 22nd year, in my wide eyed innocence, I, in a sense, became the subject. The portraits were more of a reaction, the eye naked, less cluttered and now focused if not hypnotized. Now, years after and thousands of images later, I feel this is my best work, but that I, Scott Clarke, had little to do with it. Words like power, energy, magic, and ancient came to mind as I attempted to explain the experience recently, and let me add one more... life changing. Months would pass between visits to their neighbourhood, and upon my last visit, I found the house gone... Langford gone... his Mother gone... the cat gone... the dog gone. For me the last image in this series, the dog alone in the chair , captures the loss I remember feeling at the time. As I now sit and put these images together, I fully understand that Langford and his Mother allowed more than a glimpse into their lives, and I am left with these images eternal to share.

Images from this series were selected and printed in the 2009 B&W Magazine Portfolio Edition. Also in 2005 these images won several IPA - LUCIE Awards and 15 images were printed in the 2005 Annual Book.